Fireflies E07 Feedback - Expectations & reality?

Just taken delivery of my first product from Fireflies, the E07 in black with XP-L HI V2 NW 5000K, cyan Aux (ordered blue aux) from Nealsgadgets.

Following reviews from Liquidretro and Lumeniac I thought I'd take a punt on an E07 and risk getting it via the non-communicative Neal.

It arrived yesterday and what I was excepting does not quite match the excellent photos as shown in the aforementioned reviews, pictured below from Lumeniac's review.

This is what I received......Poorly finished and poorly anodised around the switch recess, very poorly finished bezel with small complementary dings, marring generally spread across the flashlight. Also appears to either being missing the tail cap spring or a redesign?

Very blunt tooling used to machine finish the surface of the bezel.

Is this the standard I should expect from Fireflies or have I received a factory 2nd item? The fit and finish is appalling, it isn't close to that depicted in the reviews and falling very short of my expectations.

This flashlight is less than a day in my possession, if I were to immediately sell it I would have to disclose the condition and likely take a hit because of the condition yet this is brand new out of the box supposedly.

I'm loathed to have to play the lousy communication game / ghosting from Neal, his customer service, both personally experienced and what I've read online is abysmal, I'm in no mood to be ignored for two to six months for a resolution on this.

What would you do, accept this?

Who can I contact to get this sorted?


I’m also disappointed. I ordered Ti/Cu. Here is the review and picture
Then received replacement head, wich is also far from perfect. In meantime I noticed cracks in the tailcap. When I wrote to them about tailcap issue, I was completely ignored.

Too bad you had such bad luck. Especially because you ordered from Neal - double bad luck. My problem with my only order at Neal I could only solve via Paypal. No answer from him at all, none at all.

My E07 is one of my most beautiful and favorite pieces. The fireflies as well as my Emisar, Nightwatch, Lumintop and Convoys arrived without any flaws and work wonderfully. Only my two sofirn lamps arrived in a terrible condition - SC31 pro and SP36 Anduril.

I think it would be appropriate if you got a refund of for example 20 percent. This is a long fight with Neal though. But maybe it will go better here with the support of the forum.

Good luck.

What annoys me about this sort of thing is that someone (or multiple workers) in the factory, at a minimum the packer, would have seen it was well below standard, but just sent it through anyway without a care in the world.

I agree the quality is lacking.

That looks much worst than the discounted b-stock lights I bought from FF. The rest of my FF lights (I have over a dozen) had good finishing and I never saw anything like what you show in your pics but I bought almost all of my lights direct from FF’s website though. Yours appear to be a used light.

hn shouldnt look like that, that light is not how u expect it when u recieve it… i would dispute that… like a bad sample that shouldnt have left factory to customer…

I have similar marks with anodizating of most of mine Sofirn lights. But they are cheap and you can except what you pay, but FF in another case are not cheap at all so also for me that quality is poor. If I remembered it this is not first time with bad quality from FF.

the machining around the switch bezel would annoy me the most

It is a possibility that this was a “First Article” or sample sent to the seller that wasn’t meant to be sold. If not then I’d say Jack has work to do at the factory. Worst thing to me is that the poor machining/anodizing wasn’t caught by QC after those processes and made it to assembly where the light passed Final Inspection (supposedly) Where’s QC???.

Good luck with Neal Zhang.

Looks like a used light. All my FF lights look great.

Or buy them from someone named Hank.

Yeah, maybe Neal sold a bunk return.

Sorry to say, I agree with klrman’s first comment.

It looks like the switch ring has been pryed off marking the ano. It looks like a metal ring has been thru that gap in the heat sinking (some kind of lanyard experiment?). And it looks like it had been screwed tight and opened a good few times with a battery inside.

This is a case of asking for a new one surely?

I don’t see how this is an issue for the dealer. It’s not like most dealers are opening boxes and fully inspecting everything. Even with type 3 anodizing you can get some scuffed off on various hard square edges through rough handling (multiple bodies in one bin or box) and during assembly. So I understand some people are going to want things perfectly flawless. I can appreciate it when things are but I’m not the type of person that is going to try to sell something or return it just because it’s not perfect on the finish. It should work as advertised. So none of these issues affect the operation in any way shape or form. That’s the bottom line.

I have to admit, I am a person who wants to have a perfectly looking light. Especially if it costs more.
Yes, it is technically 100% fine, it is working and everything, but… Okay, let’s be honest, how many of us actually use a flashlight without a holster, scratch it, and generally don’t care about its condition?

I have 9 Fireflies lights. 4 E07’s, 2 PL47’s, and 3 ROT66’s. All of them were great and work perfectly, couldn’t find any faults other than I wish they used a bigger/stronger O-ring.

I definitely agree, scratching or damaging one of my flashlights, (or cameras, or bicycles, or etc) affects my mood for at least a couple hours and permanently detracts from the item damaged.

I guess function is the “bottom line” if you use your lights exclusively as tools but many of us flashlight enthusiasts and collectors love and enjoy the design, capabilities, and aesthetics of our lights and having them in good condition even appearance wise is important to us. I have several lights I use most often to avoid wear and damage to my favorites. The favorites are taken out for fun and experimentation on a walk etc.

Then there should be a disclaimer, “warning the lights might look worse of the actual product u will recieve vs the photos shown in the webpage” That too me is not ok… even cheap convoy lights dont have this problem for a budget light 20$ish price i could accept such flaws but not when its more then double that…. its just bad quality overall and seems not to have improved since last time this was brought up that they have so so quality testing….

A bunch of ROT66’s arrived scuffed at a dealer recently, and now this…

Update -

Still nothing from Neal, he is at least consistent with 'his' customer service. I have since discovered more issues with other items ordered from him such as the HTP Works glow button for FW3A not fitting in one of two FW3A's I own which was rather irritating.

The better news is a representative of Fireflies has contacted me in order to replace the head, now waiting on a response, can't say I'm filled with confidence though.